Veteran broadcaster and former Press secretary Ricardo “Dong” Puno, Jr. passed away on Tuesday, Feb. 15, his family said.
He was 76.
His sons, Ricky and Donnie, said that Puno succumbed to a lingering illness at 12:15 p.m.
Puno, who was also a lawyer, served under the Estrada administration and was a longtime broadcaster at ABS-CBN for various programs such as Dong Puno Live, Viewpoints, and Insider.
He was also its senior vice president for News and Current Affairs.
Puno was appointed Press Secretary by former President Joseph Estrada in 2000 and run for Senate in 2001 but lost.
He went back to ABS-CBN and served as president of the Guagua National Colleges from 2008 to 2012.
Puno is the son of former Justice Minister and Court of Appeals Associate Justice Ricardo Puno Sr., who co-founded with him the Puno & Puno Law Offices.
Condolences poured in from his media friends, particularly Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.
“Goodbye my friend—cousin if distant on his mom's side. After Noli de Castro put me on TV for Assignment—the nowhere as popular English version of Magandang Gabi Bayan, my face was suddenly famous and mobs of fans would scream as I passed, "Uy! si Dong Puno!" I felt homicidal,” he said in a tweet.
Erwin Tulfo also posted on Facebook.
“Rest well, Sir,” he wrote.